Hi, my name is Lewis Scotney I’m 13, in Y9 and I race Polaris buggy’s in the British SXS youth championship. The buggies are Polaris 570 Aces, they do around 55 mph from new, however, the ones I race are modified for safety and to comply with racing rules and regulations.
This is the second year of this youth series so it’s new compared to some other series’, its run by SXS Racing they also have an adult racing series, pro, rookie and a open class for all different machines which is well established and has been running for many years.
I was in the first year of the youth racing championship and I came joint 3rdand I’m leading it this year however the competition is increasing as people join from both motor cross and karting disciplines. We race in many different places on lots of different tracks in the UK we have had multiple races in wales this year and last, some are just dirt tracks on fields and some are huge quarries for example Kirton off-road Centre. There are 3 races a practice and qualifying in one round and sometimes there is the additional joker lane which Is a longer section of the track that every racer must do once in each race. Each race is 12 minutes plus 1 lap. The tracks are either rally cross, motor cross or custom buggy tracks which consist of tight small dirt corners, long bumpy straights and big jumps.
Latest Race, September 15/16, 2018.
My start wasn’t great I came in 5 minutes into practice thinking there was something wrong with the brakes which was probably due to the wet welsh weather and the very hilly track, after a quick chat I was told to push much harder over one of the biggest jumps,
I got sent back out onto the track to finish practice which didn’t go well. I went much to fast over the jumps and over did it a bit, on that jump there’s a small dip just before the climb the front suspension took it and the rear squatted and bottomed out so when I went up the jump the rear started to bounce and pushed me back into the seat and jarred my back so I ended up missing all the practice and having to go out in qualifying and seek poll position , I did by 8 seconds to the next person.
Race 1, there was some near misses while exiting the longer joker lane onto other people and quote the ‘heart stopping 22ft jump over the finishing line’ which managed to scare most of the paddock watching and claimed me my first place.
I kept my lead in race 2 and 3 so finishing overall in 1stplace.
If anyone is interesting in taking part in this growing sport visit SXSracing.co.uk for more info.